| OCR Text |
Show 282 WAR FOR THE COLORADO RIVER years the water storage and hydroelectric power possibilities of the Upper Colorado Rivr Basin including the area included within Dinosaur National Monument. The Bureau arrived at the conclusion that utilization of two storage power sites within the national monument, referred to as the Echo Park and Split Mountain sites, was necessary for the best development of the water resources of the Colorado River Basin and that suitable alternate sites outside the boundaries of the monument could not be found. In its role, under congressional mandate, as custodian of the areas of the national park system, of which Dinosaur National Monument is one, the National Park Service believes and, therefore, maintains that the proposed Echo Park and Split Mountain units of the Upper Colorado River Storage Project would seriously and adversely affect numerous splendid natural and archeological values of the extensive canyon portions of the national monument, although they would not physically affect the small area in which the famous dinosaur beds are found. On pages 244 and 245 of the departmental report of July 1947, entitled "The Colorado River," and in the National Park Service report entitled "A Survey of the Recreational Resources of the Colorado River Basin," compiled in 1946 and published in 1950, it is asserted that the effects of the proposed Echo Park and Split Mountain units upon irreplaceable geo- logical, wilderness, and related values of national significance would be deplorable. |
